The Garden City Telegram
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Creating a healthy alternative
Published 11/20/2009 in Local News
By GAYLE WEBER
Special to The Telegram
NATOMA -- Sharon MacConnell doesn't own a deep-fat fryer. There are no preservatives in her homemade bread. And about the only packaged foods in her kitchen are the hot tea packets.
But that was MacConnell's goal when she opened Skaylite Kitchen on Nov. 2 in downtown Natoma -- to do things as naturally as possible.
"My whole idea is to try to keep people healthy," MacConnell said.
The cornerstone of that idea is Momma Sharon's Healthy Bread.
Prior to developing the all-natural, multi-grain bread, MacConnell hardly could eat carbohydrates without it affecting her diabetes. But on her two recent trips to Europe, eating breads actually dropped her blood glucose level because the breads consisted of more grains than most breads made in the United States.
So she started experimenting with grains to develop a bread she could eat without her blood glucose level spiking.
"I've always made homemade bread, so that isn't anything new," MacConnell said. "But this grain bread that I came up with, that's a new thing, and I'm going to look for a patent on it."
Along with Momma Sharon's bread, MacConnell and her daughter-in-law, Savanna, also make their own white, rye and sourdough loaves, beginning at 5 a.m. each day. The bread is served as part of Skaylite's menu items and also can be purchased by the loaf.
"We still haven't figured out how to keep up with the demand for breads," MacCon-nell said, noting they've gone through about 80 loaves each of the past two weeks.
Along with bread, Skaylite Kitchen also makes desserts from scratch including pies, cinnamon rolls, muffins, brownies and Dylan Pruter's favorite -- monster cookies.
Pruter, a fifth-grader at Natoma Elementary School, has become an after-school regular during cookies-and-milk time from 4 to 5 p.m. each day at Skaylite Kitchen.
"You gotta get your cookie fix," Natoma band teacher Bonnie Schamberger told Pruter as they both munched on cookies Friday afternoon.
MacConnell said she opened Skaylite Kitchen -- which gets its name from MacConnell being called Sharon Kay or S.Kay for short and the "lite" fare she wants to serve -- because people needed a place to gather for coffee, or in Schamberger's case a cup of hot tea.
"Cafes are the lifeline of a small town," said MacConnell's husband, Ben, who waits tables. "That's where everybody comes by and talks about the weather. There's only a few places in a small town -- the schools, a post office and a cafe. So, it's as much of a service as it is a business."
Skaylite Kitchen, 412 Elm, is open from 6 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, serving traditional breakfast items and a lunch of soups, sandwiches and a daily special.
So far, Sharon MacConnell said she's only had one person ask for french fries, but most people are getting used to her healthier menu.
"We want it to be like when you come in to mom's kitchen," she said.
Not only does Sharon MacConnell do a lot of the cooking and baking, she also tries to be a presence among the customers, too.
"I want to be a part of every part of the business," she said.
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